THE MILK OF SORROW BY CLAUDIA LLOSA THE MILK OF SORROW CREW DIRECTOR CLAUDIA LLOSA SCREENPLAY CLAUDIA LLOSA PRODUCERS ANTONIO CHAVARRIAS, JOSÉ MARIA MORALES, CLAUDIA LLOSA CINEMATOGRAPHER NATASHA BRAIER EDITOR FRANK GUTIERREZ ART DIRECTOR SUSANA TORRES, PATRICIA BUENO A PRODUCTION OF WANDA VISIÓN, OBERON CINEMATOGRÁFICA, VELA FILMS WITH SUPPORT FROM ICAA – MINISTERIO DE CULTURA, ICIC – GENERALITAT SYNOPSIS THE MILK OF SORROW BY CLAUDIA LLOSA DE CATALUNYA, MEDIA DEVELOPMENT, IBERMEDIA, CONACINE, WORLD CINEMA FUND, VISIONS SUD EST Fausta suffers from “the milk of sorrow ”, an illness transmitted through mother’s milk by women who have been violated or mistreated during the war of terrorism in Peru. The war has ended, but Fausta lives to remind of it because “the illness of fear ” stole her soul. Now, her mother’s sudden death forces her to confront her fears and the secret that is hidden inside of her: she has inserted a potato into her vagina to serve as a protective shield that repels disgusting intruders. THE MILK OF SORROW is the story of a search for re-awakening, a journey from fear to freedom. DIRECTOR’S COMMENT “Words are the source of misunderstandings .” Antoine De Saint-Exupéry How can we communicate with each other in a divided country? How can we create one body, one nation, if we live in a country of individuals who are culturally so different? How can a nation compose itself after a violent rupture and traumatic experience? THE MILK OF SORROW is a metaphor for breakdown. A repressed country that can only express itself via its unconscious: its myths, its fears and traumas. The body of a bleeding woman expresses emptiness that needs to be filled, anguish that needs to rest, terror of coming across something different, of losing control. We live in an indecisive, repressed country whose main informer is its body. But memory is not the only aim of the battle. How does the process of burying a painful past function? Does more memory require more forgiveness and reconciliation? An effort for forgiveness is required, as well as one to preserve the history of an oral culture that has been repressed by an officially imposed history. Aristotle once said that “mere voice is not only an indication of pleasure and pain.” That is why singing functions as an important way of expressing ourselves, of recreat- ing our memory or what we have forgotten. But insufficient written memory does not destroy the wealth of a people’s history. Neither does it eliminate its sorrow, nor does it always contribute to its vindication. But it does increase its need for expression. The Andean world is seeking to renew itself via its festivals, rituals and songs: a “constant return” of repressed memory in allegorical form. This is the ingenuity of a modern, emerging and creative culture that, coming as it does from the Andes racked by terrorism, displays an extraordinary capacity to enter into a world that does not recognise its diversity and respect for the “other”. THE MILK OF SORROW is about unresolved, violent, personal and collective memory. Imposed burden, latent repression. A potato buried inside a girl, in search of a possible flowering. A healing. TECHNICAL DATA FORMAT 35 mm / 1:1,85 / Colour / Dolby Digital LENGTH 100 min. ORIGINAL LANGUAGE Spanish, Quechua SUBTITLES English CLAUDIA LLOSA DIRECTOR CAST Fausta MAGALY SOLIER Claudia Llosa Bueno (Peruvian – Italian) w as born November 15th 1976 in Lima, Peru. Aida She studied Communication in the University of Lima ( 1998), then she optained a master SUSI SÁNCHEZ degree in Film and TV Scriptwriting in the Superior School of Arts and Spectacles TAI, Noe Madrid, Spain (200 1). Claudia began working in advertising and television for Peruvian EFRAíN SOLIS and foreign companies. Later on she started her own production company in Perú, Tío Lucido Vela Films (velafilms.com.pe) and directed her first feature film, MADEINUSA (2006). MARINO BALLÓN MADEINUSA was premiered in the Official Selection of Sundance Film Festival (United States of America) and at the Rotterdam Film Festival (The Netherlands). The film has won more than twenty awards in different prestigious international festivals, in - cluding the International Critics Award (Fipresci) in Rotterdam Film Festival, Best Film in Lima Film Festival, Best Film in Malaga Latin-American Festival (Spain), Sicca award for the Best Latin American film in Mar del Plata Film Festival (Argentina), “El Sol” award for the Best Actress in Festivalissimo – Montreal Festival 2007 (Canada), among others. Also, MADEINUSE was selected to represent Peru in the “Oscar” award 2007. MADEINUSA has been released in more than 20 territories all over the world. Claudia Llosa currently resides in Barcelona. THE MILK OF SORROW (La Teta Asustada) is her second feature film. WORLD SALES THE MATCH FACTORY GMBH BALTHASARSTRASSE 7 9– 81 50670 COLOGNE / GERMANY TEL +49 22 1 53 97 09-0 FAX +49 22 1 53 97 09- 10 E-MAIL: [email protected] WWW.THE-MATCH-FACTORY.COM t d i m h c S n i w r e G t f a h c s n i e m e g r e i l e t A.